In a major breakthrough, Pakistani security officials have foiled an attempt by the Indian intelligence agencies to enact a fake encounter for implicating Pakistan in incidents of cross-border terrorism. The plan was unearthed when a suspect working for the Indian intelligence agencies was apprehended in Sialkot border area while attempting to cross over to India through the border security fence; an impregnable barbed wire obstacle whose entrance points are locked and controlled by the Indian BSF.
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Indian Secret Agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) |
“The suspect has confessed to working as an Indian spy who was tasked to recruit agents from Pakistan to work for Indian intelligence”, a senior security official said, requesting his name not be mentioned.
The suspect, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, during preliminary interrogation, confessed that his Indian handlers Sharma and Amjad had tasked him to recruit a Pakistani national by offering a large monetary reward, preferably carrying a weapon and send him across the border through the border barbed wire fence after liaison with the BSF troops. Sharma had assured him that all the details of border crossing would be finalised by him and duly taken care off at his end. The suspect also disclosed that the Indian intelligence agencies had planned a fake encounter to kill the border crosser. “The purpose was to exploit the episode as proof of subversive elements launched by ISI for crossing over from Pakistan to commit acts of terrorism in India”, intelligence sources maintained.
The arrested suspect also confessed to the investigators that he had held a few meetings with his Indian handlers in Islamabad as well. According to observers, arrest of the suspect has bared presence of organised espionage networks based in Pakistan and run by the Indian undercover agents. While conducting acts of terrorism remains their top priority, current emphasis seems to have shifted to conducting fake encounters that would help vitiate the environment for holding Composite Dialogue Process that had lost all momentum in the wake of Mumbai terror strike in Nov 2008.
“With the possibility of a secretary-level interaction emerging on the sidelines of a Saarc meeting in Thimpu Bhutan in first week of February, India should be interested in a few fake encounters depicting flow of terrorists from Pakistan that would strengthen its position to format any future discussions centred on terrorism rather than finding ways to tackle the core issue of Kashmir”, observers said. The episode also points to the involvement of Indian undercover intelligence officers stationed in its Islamabad embassy, engaging in espionage activities in grave violation of their diplomatic status, said an expert on Indo-Pak relations.
